Mother, Run, Hike

I read for the same reason that I run... for my mental health. I have turned to TV and books for a change of scene when things get difficult to deal with. For me, reading books and watching TV is about seeing that many others have dealt with many more difficult situations, and that maybe I can learn from that. Here are some of my favorite books that helped me deal with life.   The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - This is a book about Charlie, who is going into High School. He is an introvert, and the book is letters that he is writing to a "friend" about his High School experience. I wanted to crawl inside this book and live in it.       Harry Potter by JK Rowling- The entire series If a Teenager can beat the Dark Lord several times, with the help and love of his friends and family, I can get up and deal with life.       Born To Run by Christopher McDougall - I highly recommend this book to anybody interested i...

Hello dear Random Strangers! Thank you for stopping by to read my ramblings on things. This is likely to be the last of my post for this year, as I have off from work, and will be spending lots of time with my son. So, wanted to go back and relive some of my favorite races of the year. My favorite Races It is really hard to pick a favorite race, I really did love all 17 of them! But the three that immediately jump to my mind are The Kennett Run, Bird In Hand 5K, and The Hershey Half Marathon. Kennett Run 5K There are many reasons for the Kennett Run to be my favorite run, it's the first race I did in The United States, and it's one that I've been doing for years. This year most of my family was there for the event, my sisters and I ran the 5K. My brothers looked after my son and my niece, and we went to My sister's bakery after the race. The race itself is hard! The first mile goes slightly uphill with some rolling hills, but with all of the excitement, my legs...

I have a job that keeps me sitting at a computer for most of the day, with little social interaction. I mostly enter number in a computer and audit files. I have done this work for years, so my brain doesn't find it challenging and I get bored. I have to distract my brain, and keep things challenging, so while at work I listen to books. I don't freely admit to many people that I listen to books, because some would say that listening to books is lazy, but to those people I ask "When was the last time you read/listen to 3 books in one week?". And every now and then when time allows it, I read real books, I'm currently finishing The Things They Carried. And I need to point out that if I don't listen to books, my day ends up being spend reading random race recaps on blogs... can't help it, I enjoy random race recaps from strangers. Back in 2014 I had started listening to a lot of books, after finishing the Harry Potter series, I was quickly running out of bo...

Long, long ago, before I started doing zumba, before I started the running, while I was married and constantly stressed out, I used to have a long parade of negative thoughts running trough my inner monologue. I didn't realize this, or the effect this was having on my self esteem and my attitude towards everybody around me. When I started doing Zumba, I was at an all time low. Demoted from work, had been sick for 1 week, then my son had been sick, I had fallen while carrying my son and he had a huge bruise on his forehead... so my inner monologue was at a ultimate time high. The thoughts constantly on my mind were along the lines of " You are the worst mom ever, you are so fat, you are so stupid, you are useless". I was not fat, or overweight, but I was at my highest weight ever. After having my son and breastfeeding him for 8 months, my metabolism never re-adjusted to the amount of food I was eating. So I was constantly hungry, but not burning anything off. The saddest...